Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian—Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — The high rate of Filipinos dissatisfied with the senior high program shows the Department of Education’s (DepEd) failure to deliver its promised results, said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, citing a recent survey conducted by Pulse Asia.
Gatchalian, chair of the Senate committee on basic education, is worried over the Pulse survey results, which showed that 4 out of 10 of the respondents are dissatisfied with the DepEd’s senior high school program, while a roughly equal number said they were satisfied.
“We have added two years to the education of our youth, but for some of our parents, this only brought added expenses. Many of our people are not contented with the senior high school program because they have yet to see the promised benefits of this program,” he said.
In the Pulse Asia survey that Gatchalian commissioned, 42 percent of the 1,200 respondents polled nationwide said they were dissatisfied with senior high school program, while 41 percent said they were satisfied. The remaining 16 percent could not say if they were satisfied or dissatisfied.
For Gatchalian, the dissatisfaction with senior high school reflects the program’s failure to deliver on its promise to make its graduates college-ready and work-ready.
He cited a 2020 discussion paper by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), which revealed that only a little over 20 percent of senior high school graduates entered the labor force, while more than 70 percent continued with their education.
The PIDS study also revealed that, in terms of basic pay per day, senior high school graduates had “no clear statistically significant advantage or disadvantage” compared to Grade 10 and second-year college completers, Gatchalian said.
According to the latest Pulse Asia survey conducted June 19 to June 23, dissatisfaction was highest in the National Capital Region, where 53 percent of respondents said they were unhappy with senior high school while only 31 percent said they were satisfied.
More respondents in Luzon were satisfied (43 percent) than dissatisfied (35 percent) with senior high school.